The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized : The Wu Tang Clan--nay, the Voltron!--of Gadgets

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The Revolution Will Not Be Digitized

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Brian Braiker

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N'Gai Croal

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Steven Levy

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The Wu Tang Clan--nay, the Voltron!--of Gadgets

Brian Braiker

What is it?
The BUG.

How much will it cost me?
$349 (although there is an "early adopter" price of $299)

Who makes it?
Bug Labs

Why should I care?
You can invent your own gadget. How cool is that?

How would you describe it?
BUG is a collection of palm-sized modules that snap together to build any gadget you can imagine--like Voltron. Each module is it's own individual gadget: there's a BUG camera, a GPS device, a keyboard, video output and so on. Where it gets mindbendingly neato is that you can attach up to four of them at a time onto the "BUGbase," which is essentially a programmable computer (Linux, for those of you keeping score at home). The individual modules now work in concert. So if, for example, you plug the GPS device and the camera into the base, you have created a toy that can automatically publish geo-tagged photos online (think Google Street View). Swap out the GPS device for the LCD screen and you have a web cam or can publish photos live to Flickr. Stick on a motion detector and you have programmable home security -- it senses movement, snaps a pic and e-mails it to you. The list of various permutations goes on.

When can I get my hands on it?
January 21

Your verdict?
Manna of the geeks

Gadgets

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